IBM filed a breach-of-contract/misappropriation of trade secrets suit in New York Supreme Court last week seeking to hold Joanne Olsen to her non-compete and stop her from going to Oracle for a year.
It’s gotten a temporary restraining order according to InformationWeek.
Olsen, with IBM for 31 years, was a general manager in IBM’s services unit and was hired by Oracle as senior VP of on-demand services, the SaaS versions of its software, reporting to none other than Larry Ellison, who’s aiming to do as much damage as he can to IBM.
IBM alleges that she knows too much about IBM, its operations, its growth strategies and its potential acquisitions to fall into Oracle’s hands.
IBM has gone to court a couple of times in the last couple years waving its non-competes around.
Oracle’s on-demand revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter just reported Thursday was $295 million, up from $204 million a year ago.